Election results are in from Revere, where Suffolk Downs and Mohegan Sun are partnering to build a racino. It wasn’t even close. Casino opponents were heavily outspent and, in the end, heavily outvoted, being crushed in a landslide, 63% to 37%. The facts of the case speak so powerfully for themselves that further commentary seems superfluous. Mohegan Sun now goes up against Wynn Resorts and CEO Mitchell Etess couldn’t help taunting Steve Wynn, saying, “We’re going to win this license because our application to Massachusetts is unconditional.” (Wynn wants a tax break and sundry other tweaks.) Revere residents would like a tax break of their own, along with the jobs Mohegan Sun would bring. As for Suffolk Downs, if it continues to harp on its threat to end live racing sans casino, it’s going to sound like economic blackmail.
Today, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission looks at the impact and planned mitigation of three proposed slot parlors. So far, Penn National Gaming‘s Plainville project and Cordish Cos.’ rival proposal for Leominster have been fighting to a draw. Leominster has less competition working in its favor while Plainridge has a denser population base to draw upon. You can judge the three designs for yourself. (To date, Greenwood Racing‘s $220 million Raynham Park proposal is in the ‘also ran’ category.) Massachusetts could lose, big time, on tax revenues if the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head prevails in federal court over its bid to build a casino. In the meantime, the project moves inexorably forward, opposition from the state and from local selectmen be damned.
Facing grim reality, Gov. Chris Christie‘s office ‘fessed up that tax revenues from online gambling in New Jersey were going to come in nowhere close to what the governor had projected. An initial estimate had been an extremely optimistic $200 million, later pared to $160 million. Now it’s $34 million. Quoth the state treasurer, “clearly this hasn’t met our expectations for the first fiscal year.” 2015 doesn’t look significantly better: $55 million is projected for that year. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D, right) had predicted $60 million, which at least makes him less wrong than Christie, who he says “just threw [cautionary thoughts] out the window.” Now the Garden State has to look someplace else for those hundreds of millions it thought it would make off the ‘Net.
Add Deadwood, South Dakota to the markets struggling with casino saturation. Revenues were off 4% last month. However, this will enable the casinos there to get roulette, keno and craps from the state Legislature. There’s nothing like a revenue crisis to loosen the legislative spigot.
